791 Sensemaking and Research Design Bog |
I will admit that my first read went something like this...
"Sense-making is making sense in places where sense makes sense. And when sense-making doesn't make sense you need to make sense of the sense it doesn't make." Ummmm.... I needed a strategy, possibly more than one. First, I looked at the pictures and figures. I got an basic overview. Next, I read a few paragraphs at a time and walked away, did a chore, watched some TV, played some legos. I tackled the article like this, a few chunks at a time. Underlining important points and making notes in the margin. My next strategy was to turn on the computer and see what else was out there around Sense-making and/or Brenda Dervin. I actually found some videos of Brenda herself talking about sense-making. Then I went back to the article again. I had a better understanding from the previous reads and videos to piece together a basic working understanding of sense-making for myself. Sense-making is a "generalize methodological approach for the study of any situation in which one wishes to focus on how people construct sense of their experiences." For researchers or interviewers it is a method to look at how individuals get their information or needs met by focusing on their experiences. We can not assume that all people are alike, have the same needs, same questions or same experiences. We also can not assume that using demographic information creates more commonalities. All women or hispanics or catholics do not have the same wants, needs or experiences. "There is more diversity within these groups than between these groups and other groups if you think communicatively." Brenda Dervin Sense-making attempts to create a system or make sense of a system to be able to predict the needs of people to help bridge the gap in communication. Sense making methodology is understanding human behavior learning and ways to meet human needs. This is essential to drawing a meaningful conclusion from a research study. Dervin discusses different types of surveys that ask questions to better understand a user's experience. These surveys help systems, business, and/or researchers get information or products to people. How did their experience affect their resulting happiness or satisfaction? How did the communication used by the system help or hinder their experience? The different types of surveys discussed were the Satisfaction survery, the Image survey, the Help Chain and the Message/Q-ing survey. Each type is used by different systems in different situations to help determine how the user felt about their experience in order to bridge the gap between the user and the intended optimal outcome. Dervin provides several different examples of surveys being used in libraries, blood banks, colleges etc. As I read this article, I realize we have all been part of sense-making surveys. Every survey we fill out to rate our experience at the doctor or bank is a sense-making survey that is trying to better match the system with my personal needs. I have even sent out a few sense-making surveys as an academic specialist. Each time I send out a google survey to ask for feedback from my teachers, I am using sense-making. I am trying to match my professional development to the needs of each teacher. I wasn't able to define it, but we have already been using sense-making in our daily lives.
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